Toward Better Animal Models for Molecular Psychiatry

Abstract

There is a need to develop better animal models for mental disorders because the current models are suboptimal and often fail to recapitulate important aspects of the human condition. This belief is often expressed in psychiatry, but the question remains: How can this be accomplished? Psychiatric disorders are complex heterogeneous disorders with substantial comorbidity. This diversity gives rise to disagreements regarding the diagnosis in patients; therefore, it is not surprising that animal models fail to satisfy the expectations of clinicians as well as basic scientists. However, in the past 2 decades, we have gained an increased understanding of the synaptic circuitry of the brain at the molecular level and have been able to combine this information with advanced tools to manipulate that circuitry rapidly and reversibly. These current genetic and optogenetic approaches raise the bar on what can be accomplished in animal models but do not address the growing need to develop better models that can be scrutinized with these state-of-the-art tools.